Emmanuel Garbolino

Risk evaluation of real‐time accident scenarios in the transport of hazardous material on road

Purpose – This paper seeks to tackle the complex problem of integrating real‐time data information about the tracking of a hazardous material (hazmat) vehicle with classical risk evaluation methodologies in order to describe possible accident scenarios. The application deals with the transport of hydrocarbon dangerous goods, where the accident consequences may involve the population exposed along the infrastructure used for transportation.Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken consists of three phases. First, the acquisition of real‐time data about the travel and the carried hazmat; second, the evaluation of the risk area; and finally, a Geographic Information System (GIS) are taken into account.Findings – The findings of this analysis constitute the methodological basis to implement a decision support system as regards hazmat transport risk analysis, also in real time, with important evaluations for planning criteria. Using TIP (Transport Integrated Platform), the data collection is received in...

An overview of a multiagent-based simulation system for dynamic management of risk related to Dangerous Goods Transport

Transportation engineering, and especially of Dangerous Goods (DG), is one of the areas in which technological development is crucial. Logistic control systems, routing and scheduling algorithms, supply chain management have been applied in this aspect so as to improve the cost-effectiveness ratio and to reduce risks. Unfortunately, most of these works remain theoretical since tests on real case scenario sometimes proves difficult to achieve especially when we are dealing with Dangerous Goods Transport (DGT). In this paper, an architecture of a visual DGT simulation system has been introduced. It provides entries for testing these works and produces results close to real experiments. Applications on serious games, financial market, engineering are evidence of success of the visual simulation system. Thus, the challenge consists on how to design a system that represents real-world systems with an appropriate degree of complexity and dynamics. Several researchers have already suggested solutions since the 50s. These solutions have been classified in three levels: microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic simulation. It has been decided to use a microscopic approach using an agent-based model. It allows the representation of systems at different levels of complexity, a System of Systems (SoS), through the use of autonomous, goal-driven and interacting entities. The system is implemented using the software MATSim (http://www.matsim.org/). The main actors of the system stand for the DG Carriers Operator (CO) agent that manages a fleet of DG Carriers agents, taking logistic decisions on their behalf. The COs collaborate with the National Authority (NA), which is an agent concerned by the safety shipment of goods at regional and national level. The paper focus on the Multi-Agent System (MAS) architecture and introduces its key components as well as the means on interaction.

Real-timefastest path algorithm using bidirectional point-to-point search on a Fuzzy Time-Dependent transportation network

Nowadays management of information systems within the transport industry for effective and efficient decision making requires the use of latest technological development such real-time monitoring and traffic simulation. This will lead to the development of methods and algorithms, for instance, of fleet management, routing within a specified time windows and risk assessment. In this paper we will focus on proposing a method for finding itineraries that has the fastest travel-time on a time-dependent transportation network. It is modelled as a weighted graph, whose weight are time duration that depends on the time at which the road segment is traversed. This problem can be solved in polynomial time with a Single-Source algorithm, by the definition of some restrictions on the edge weights. However, its application on a graph with several millions nodes and edges is highly memory and time consuming. Alternatively, a bidirectional Point-to-Point path search, using A-star, offers far better performance. The novelty of the proposed approach is based on the modelling of an appropriate degree of dynamics of a real-world network by considering the fuzzy nature of the travel-time using Zadehs fuzzy concept. In addition, we speed-up search by integrating a pre-computation phase, which consists in network partitioning using network Voronoi diagrams with implicit calculation of the lower-bound travel-time label for each node-to-border, border-to-border and border-to-node. Those labels should never overestimate the travel-time at any moment, to ensure the reliability of the suggested heuristic cost function.

Ranking Triangular Fuzzy Numbers Using Fuzzy Set Inclusion Index

In this paper, an original ranking operator is introduced for Triangular Fuzzy Numbers. The purpose is to elaborate fast and efficient algorithms dealing with complicated operations and big data in fuzzy decision-making. The proposed ranking operator takes advantage of the topological relationship of two triangles, besides the Inclusion Index concept — which is an index indicating the Degree of Inclusion in the MIN of two Fuzzy Numbers, a way to approach the ”strongly included in”. Consequently, the ranking result can mostly be deduced directly, allowing an efficient ranking process.

Hazard and risk evaluation in hydrogen pipelines

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is the definition and the implementation of a simplified mathematical model to estimate the hazard and the risk related to the use of high‐pressurized hydrogen pipeline.Design/methodology/approach – This study aims to investigate the effects of different hydrogen operations conditions and to tackle with different release or failure scenarios. Based on the combination of empirical relations and analytical models, this paper sets the basis for suitable models for consequence analysis in terms of estimating fire length and of predicting its thermal radiation. The results are compared either with experimental data available in the literature, thus by setting the same operations and failure conditions, or with other conventional gaseous fuel currently used.Findings – The findings show that the release rate increasingly varies according to the supply pressure. Regarding the effect of the hole diameter, it hugely affects the amount of hydrogen escaping from the leak, up to a v...

A Distributed Information System Prototype to Detect and Monitor the Hazardous Material Transport on the Road in the Territory of Nice-Imperia-Ventimiglia

This paper presents a Decision Support System (DSS) for the detection and monitoring of Hazardous Material (hazmat) transportation on the road infrastructure Nice-Imperia-Savona between France and Italy that was developed in the TMD-NIS Interreg IIIA Alcotra Project. The final objective of the TMD-NIS project was to determine the most effective information and communication technologies and common operation strategies applicable in hazmat management in order to minimize the hazmat transport risk and to improve the road infrastructure safety conditions. An integrated and comparative assessment of the two alternative technologies was performed by the partners of the project: an image processing system to identify the ONU codes on the hazmat plates installed on each truck has been tested in France, while an on-board computer system to store and transmit information related to the hazmat physical conditions, vehicle’s locations and performance measures has been implemented in Italy. The collaboration between the different research institutions and the complementarities of the two specific approaches to define and monitor the hazmat vehicle flows allow comparison and validation of the acquired data related to the type, the amount and the itineraries of the hazmat vehicles which cover the trans-border road infrastructures daily. At present, the TMD-NIS project also provides a GIS utility that is available on the web to track in real-time hazmat vehicles that analyze data about hazmat flow and also to visualize the risk index for the highway from the toolbar barriers of St. Isidore (Nice) to the Ventimille.

Relations entre plantes et climats en France : étalonnage de 1874 bio-indicateurs

The influence of climate on plants geography is studied through a probabilistic calibration between a botanical database, containing 12 000 plots, and a meteorological database composed of 574 climatic stations. The calibration measures the climatical optimum (position) and the indicator power (concentration) of 1874 plants for six climatic variables. The validation of these relations is based upon the comparison of the estimation of climate by plants and the values measured by climatic stations near the plots. This validation underlines that plants are accurate (accuracy=88.5%) and stable (stability=96.5%) bio-indicators of climate variables.

An original approach to ranking fuzzy numbers by inclusion index and Bitset Encoding

A variety of methods for ranking fuzzy sets has been suggested. Generally, these methods fall under two main categories: a fuzzy-real sets mapping, a dominance relation of one fuzzy set over another. The original approach proposed in this paper belongs to the second category, as the ranking is based on the degree of inclusion in the MIN of two fuzzy numbers. The novelty lies mainly in the intuitive connection between the topological relationship of fuzzy shapes (triangles, trapezoids, etc.) and the measure of inclusion or dominance referred as inclusion index. This connection led to the classification of different topological relationships into classes identified by a binary pattern. This operation is referred to as Bitset Encoding. Consequently, the outcome of a ranking is already decided for most cases by merely identifying its pattern. Ultimately, the method is validated by the axiomatic system of Wang and Kerre and proven to be a reliable, efficient and strong potential alternative to the other prominent methods.

Model for developing a database for risk analysis

The aim of this paper is to propose a new systemic modelling approach in order to model a complex task of maintenance and analyses its risks. This model combines Emmanuel two different tools belonging to systemic approach: UML (Unified Model Language) and MOSAR (Method Organized for a Systemic Analysis of Risk). The objective of this new model is to identify and to model the mechanism of hazard between sources of hazard and targets in maintenance activity. In addition, this methodology allows to quantify the criticality of risks and to treat them on a hierarchical basis according to several risk factors (human, technical, organizational and environmental). The UML-MOSAR methodology allows creating a database as an information system for learning from accidents and provides a comprehensive view that facilitates the understanding of the organization of a maintenance activity and leads to more effective analysis of its safety.

Vulnerability and Resilience of the Territory Concerning Risk of Dangerous Goods Transportation (DGT): Proposal of a Spatial Model

Each year millions of tons of Dangerous Goods are transported between France and Italy using especially road and rail transportation systems. These DGT cross the territories that gather dense urbanized places, critical infrastructures (highways, tunnels, bridges etc.) and organizations (hospitals, police and firemen centres, rail stations etc.), and protected areas (national, regional and departmental natural reserves and parks). According to the definitions of vulnerability and resilience, the authors propose a spatial model based on two indices in order to characterize the level of vulnerability and resilience of the territory induced by the DGT. Those two indices are implemented into a Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to define a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) dedicated to the decision-makers (infrastructures managers, public authorities and transport companies). As a conclusion, the authors discuss the levels of vulnerability and resilience of the territory according to the different kind of transportation systems, i.e. rail and road in order to underline recommendations for DGT planning